Foreword

Adam Farquhar

From the blistering heat to the freezing cold. From desert sand to salty ocean air. From high mountains to humid jungles. From the open air under direct sun to cramped and shadowy huts. The project teams that we have supported under the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) have worked in all of these environments and more as they digitise the world’s at-risk documentary heritage, preserve it, and make it available for research.

As Director of the EAP, I have been inspired by these project teams. The more I learned about their day-to-day experiences and the different challenges they faced compared to the digitisation projects we manage in London, the more I realised how useful it would be to compile their knowledge and experience in book form. To accomplish this, we assembled an excellent team with in-depth experience of field digitisation projects, studio digitisation, and material handling. Working together, they have created this book. While we have written it with Endangered Archives projects in mind, it has much broader applicability.

We hope that this book will help anyone who takes part in field digitisation projects. It provides clear practical advice that should help you if you are trying to plan, manage and deliver such a project, with topics ranging from the organisation and listing of contents, the digitisation of delicate materials, and the use of metadata to describe the results accurately.

The EAP is funded by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, which supports the preservation of cultural heritage and promotes open access. It is through the generosity of Arcadia that we have been able to create this volume and make it available to all on an open access basis.

We have created and published this book together with Open Book Publishers to ensure that neither cost nor access would be a barrier to a potential reader anywhere in the world. In addition to the book itself – which can be a handy reference in the field and does not require a reliable electrical supply to read – we have also provided a set of online appendices that will be updated as equipment or recommendations change. We also welcome feedback from readers so that future editions reflect the best available practices.

We hope that this volume helps you and many others to digitise and preserve the world’s endangered documentary heritage – including the piece of it that is important to you, your family, and your community.